Current materials research aimed at fabricating high-temperature superconducting ceramics in conductor configurations for bulk, practical applications, is largely focused on powder-in-tube methods. Such methods have proved quite successful for the Bi--(Pb)--Sr--Ca--Cu--O (BSCCO) family of superconductors due to their unique mica-like mechanical deformation characteristics. In high magnetic fields, this family of superconductors is generally limited to applications below 30K. In the Re--Ba--Cu--O (ReBCO, Re denotes a rare earth element), Tl--(Pb,Bi)--Sr--(Ba)--Ca--Cu--O and Hg--(Pb)--Sr--(Ba)--Ca--Cu--O families of superconductors, some of the compounds have much higher intrinsic limits and can be used at higher temperatures. FIG. 1 shows a comparison of optimized properties of various superconductors.
It has been demonstrated that these superconductors possess high critical current densities (Jc) at high temperatures when fabricated as single crystals or in essentially single-crystal form as epitaxial films on single crystal substrates such as SrTiO.sub.3 and LaAlO.sub.3. These superconductors have so far proven intractable to conventional ceramics and materials processing techniques to form long lengths of conductor with J.sub.c comparable to epitaxial films. This is primarily because of the "weak-link" effect.
It has been demonstrated that in ReBCO, biaxial texture is necessary to obtain high transport critical current densities. High J.sub.c 's have been reported in polycrystalline ReBCO in thin films deposited on special substrates on which a biaxially textured non-superconducting oxide buffer layer is first deposited using ion-beam assisted deposition (IBAD) techniques. IBAD is a slow, expensive process, and difficult to scale up for production of lengths adequate for many applications.
High J.sub.c 's have also been reported in polycrystalline ReBCO melt-processed bulk material which contains primarily small angle grain boundaries. Melt processing is also considered too slow for production of practical lengths.
Thin-film materials having perovskite-like structures are important in superconductivity, ferroelectrics, and electro-optics. Many applications using these materials require, or would be significantly improved by, single crystal, c-axis oriented perovskite-like films grown on single-crystal or highly aligned metal or metal-coated substrates.
For instance, Y--Ba.sub.2 --Cu.sub.3 --O.sub.x (YBCO) is an important superconducting material for the development of superconducting current leads, transmission lines, motor and magnetic windings, and other electrical conductor applications. When cooled below their transition temperature, superconducting materials have no electrical resistance and carry electrical current without heating up. One technique for fabricating a superconducting wire or tape is to deposit a YBCO film on a metallic substrate. Superconducting YBCO has been deposited on polycrystalline metals in which the YBCO is c-axis oriented, but not aligned in-plane. To carry high electrical currents and remain superconducting, however, the YBCO films must be biaxially textured, preferably c-axis oriented, with effectively no large-angle grain boundaries, since such grain boundaries are detrimental to the current-carrying capability of the material. YBCO films deposited on polycrystalline metal substrates do not generally meet this criterion.
The terms "process", "method", and "technique" are used interchangeably herein.
For further information, refer to the following publications:
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